When you feel too much: A highly sensitive woman talks about her everyday life
Created: 01/17/2022, 08:00 p.m
By: Jennifer Battaglia
She struggled with her everyday life for a long time.
Then the 42-year-old realized that she was highly sensitive.
She wants to tell her story - but anonymously.
© Ralf Ruder
They perceive stimuli more intensely, react more emotionally and quickly feel overwhelmed.
The life of people who describe themselves as highly sensitive is exhausting.
A woman from Weilheim talks about the difficulties in her everyday life.
Weilheim
– She always knew that she was different. Even as a child, she was told that she was sensitive. She would put every word on the gold scales. "I asked myself what was wrong with me," says Katharina Schneider (name changed). The uncertainty weighed on the 42-year-old for a long time. It was only a few years ago that she found an answer that suited her. "I'm highly sensitive," says the woman from Weilheim.
Psychologists describe people who perceive stimuli more intensely than others as highly sensitive.
The term was coined by the American psychologist Elain Aron in the late 1990s.
However, high sensitivity is not an illness and is not undisputed.
Although studies suggest that certain areas of the brain are more activated in highly sensitive people, research on this is still in its infancy.
For Katharina Schneider, it makes no difference whether high sensitivity is officially recognized or not.
Through her diagnosis, she has found a bit of herself.
"I finally know what's wrong with me," she says.
Highly sensitive: Overwhelmed by stimuli
Like many other highly sensitive people, Schneider reacts strongly to external and internal stimuli.
The Weilheim resident is particularly concerned about noise.
A loud TV can push them to their limits.
"It's like a wave sloshing over me," she says.
"Then I have to get out of the situation and need distance."
That doesn't always work out. So that she isn't overwhelmed by the stimuli, Schneider has to consciously create time out from everyday life.
"As soon as the children are taken care of, I need periods of rest for myself," says the mother of three.
She then goes for walks in nature or gets lost in her thoughts.
"That's how I calm down and can ground myself," says Schneider.
Good and sufficient sleep is also important to relax.
Schneider describes her sensitivity to pain as high.
"I feel warmth and cold very strongly." And when it comes to feelings, the woman from Weilheim is also very sensitive.
"If someone is sad or depressed, I notice it immediately." She often really suffers when a friend is feeling unwell.
Or she cries for joy.
"A lot of people don't understand that," she says.
Intense emotions and mood swings are misunderstood
Highly sensitive people are often misunderstood by those around them. The intense emotions and mood swings are difficult for outsiders to understand. "The most important thing is that highly sensitive people accept who they are," says Rosalia Maier. The psychologist from Pöcking (Starnberg district) has met many of those affected in the course of her work and gives lectures on high sensitivity at adult education centers. "Highly sensitive people can feel completely at the mercy of stimuli," she says. "It can go so far that they feel physical pain." It is therefore very important for those affected to protect themselves from sensory overload.
High sensitivity can be inherited, says Maier.
However, this has not yet been scientifically proven.
According to the psychologist, about every sixth person is highly sensitive.
"Although there are big differences." Some people are only sensitive to noise.
"Many don't know it either and then come across it more by chance," says Maier.
Self-help group planned in Weilheim
It was the same with Katharina Schneider.
She can no longer practice the job she learned as a nanny due to her heightened sensitivity.
"I couldn't stand the noise level," she says.
She wishes more people knew about high sensitivity.
In Bavaria there are already many clubs and self-help groups for those affected.
This includes, for example, the association "Munich Center for High Sensitivity".
A self-help group is to be set up in Weilheim in the spring.
Katharina Schneider will be there.
“Exchanging ideas with others helps,” she says.
"And you realize that being highly sensitive isn't a bad thing."
Contact
08 81/6
81 16 16
or
selbsthilfebuero@lra-wm.bayern.de
.
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